Information About Extension Assigner

Extension Assigner Overview

This feature enables installation technicians to assign extension numbers to Cisco Unified CME phones without administrative access to the server, typically during the installation of new phones or the replacement of broken phones. However, before an installation technician can use this feature, the system administrator must first configure Cisco Unified CME to allow specific extensions to be assigned. The system administrator must also provide the installation technician with the information necessary for assigning extension numbers to phones. The installation technician can then assign extension numbers to phones with access to only the phones themselves and with no further intervention from the administrator.

To configure this feature, tasks must be performed on the Cisco router by an administrator and onsite by installation technicians..

Procedures for System Administrators

Before an installation technician can assign new extension numbers to phones, you must complete the following tasks:

1. Determine which extension numbers will be assigned to the new phones and plan your configuration.

2. Download the appropriate Tcl script and associated audio prompt files and place them in the correct directory.

3. Configure the Cisco Unified CME router to:

– Configure and load the appropriate Tcl script.

– Specify the extension that the installation technician calls to assign extension numbers.

4. Provide the installation technician with the information needed to assign extension numbers to the new phones.

Before you can configure this feature, you must understand how the extension assigner application works and what information the installation technician needs to assign extension numbers to phones.

Other information you must provide to the installation technician involves the tasks that the installation technician must perform. These tasks include:

Dialing a configurable extension number to access the extension assigner application

Entering a configurable password

Entering a tag that identifies the extension number that will be assigned to the phone

Therefore, you must make the following decisions:

Which extension number must be dialed to access the extension assigner application.

Whether the number is dialed automatically when a phone goes off hook.

What password the installation technician must enter to access the extension assigner application.

What type of tag numbers to use to identify the extension number to assign to the phone.

What specific tag numbers to use to identify the extension number to assign to the phone.

The first three decisions are straightforward, but the last two tag number decisions require some knowledge of how the extension assigner feature works.

This feature is implemented using a Tcl script and audio files. To run this script, the installation technician plugs in the phone, waits for a random extension number to be automatically assigned, and dials a specified extension number.

After the phones have registered and received their temporary extension numbers, the installation technician can access extension assigner and enter a tag number. This tag number is used to identify the extension number and must match either an ephone tag or a similar new tag called the provision-tag.

You must decide on which tag you want to use before you configure your ephone and ephone-dn entries.

The advantage of using the provision-tag is that you can make it easier for the installation technician to assign extension numbers because you can configure the tag to match the primary extension number or some other unique identifier for the phone, such as a jack number.

The disadvantage is that you configure an additional keyword for each ephone entry, as shown in the following example:

ephone 1

provision-tag 9001

mac-address 02EA.EAEA.0001

button 1:1

If you decide to use the ephone tag, it will require less configuration. However, the installation technician will enter an arbitrary tag number instead of the actual extension number when configuring a phone. This restriction is because the number of ephone tags that you can configure is limited by your license. For example, if you use the ephone tag and you have a 100-user license, the installation technician cannot enter 9001 for the tag because you can configure only ephone 1 to ephone 100.

Note that each ephone entry that you configure must also include a temporary MAC address. As shown in the above example, this address should begin with 02EA.EAEA and can end with any unique number. We strongly recommend that you can configure this unique number to match the ephone tag.

You do not have to configure any ephone entries for the extension number that are randomly assigned. The autoassign feature automatically creates an ephone entry for each new phone when it registers. The autoassign feature then automatically assigns an ephone-dn entry if there is an available ephone-dn that has one of the tag numbers specified by the auto assign command. The resulting ephone configurations have the actual MAC address of the phone and a button with the first available ephone-dn designated for the autoassign feature.

As shown in the following example, you configure at least one ephone-dn for a temporary extension and specify which ephone-dns the autoassign feature will assign to the temporary ephone entries:

telephony-service

auto assign 101 to 105

ephone-dn 101

number 0001

When the installation technician assigns an extension number to a phone, the temporary MAC address is replaced by the actual MAC address and the ephone entry created by the autoregister feature is deleted. The number of ephone-dns that you configure for the autoassign feature determines how many phones you can plug in at one time and get an automatically assigned extension. If you define four ephone-dns for autoassign and you plug in five phones, one phone will not get a temporary extension number until you assign an extension to one of the other four phones and reset the fifth phone. You are permitted to set the max-ephone value higher than the number of users and phones supported by your Cisco Unified CME phone licenses for the purpose of enrolling licensed phones using Extension Assigner.

In addition to configuring one ephone-dn for each temporary extension number that is assigned automatically, you also must configure an ephone-dn entry for each extension number that is assigned by the installation technician.

To complete the configuration, as shown in the following example, you must:

Specify whether to use the ephone or the provision-tag number to identify the extension number to assign to the phone. Set this when the feature is enabled with the new extension-assigner tag-type command provided with this feature.

Configure an ephone-dn for each temporary extension number that is assigned automatically.

Configure an ephone-dn for each extension number that you want the installation technician to assign to a phone.

Configure an ephone with a temporary MAC address for each phone that is assigned an extension number by the installation technician. Optionally, this ephone definition can include the new provision-tag. For more information, see the “Configuring Ephones with Temporary MAC Addresses” section.

telephony-service

extension-assigner tag-type provision-tag

auto assign 101 to 105

ephone-dn 1 dual-line

number 6001

ephone-dn 101

number 0001

label Temp-Line-not assigned yet

ephone 1

provision-tag 6001

mac-address 02EA.EAEA.0001

button 1:1

Because you must configure two ephone-dns for each extension number that you want to assign, you may exceed your max-dn setting. You are permitted to set the max-dn value higher than the number allowed by your license for the purpose of enrolling licensed phones using extension assigner.

Assuming that your max-dn setting is set high enough, your max-ephone setting determines how many phones you can plug in at one time. For example, if your max-ephone setting is ten more than the number of phones to which you want to assign extension numbers, the you can plug in ten phones at a time. If you plug in eleven phones, one phone will not register or get a temporary extension number until you assign an extension to one of the first ten phones and reset the eleventh phone.

After you have configured your ephone and ephone-dn entries, you can complete your router configuration by optionally configuring the router to automatically save your configuration. If the router configuration is not saved, any extension assignments made by the installation technician will be lost when the router is restarted. The alternative to this optional procedure is to have the installation technician connect to the router and enter the write memory command to save the router configuration.

The final task of the system administrator is to document the information that the installation technician needs to assign extension numbers to the new phones. You can also use this documentation as a guide when you configure Cisco Unified CME to implement this feature. This information includes:

How many phones the installation technician can plug in at one time

Which extension number to dial to access the extension assigner application

Whether the number is dialed automatically when a phone goes off hook

What password to enter to access the application

Which tag numbers to enter to assign an extension to each phone

Note Because this feature is implemented using a Tcl script and audio files, you must place the script and associated audio prompt files in the correct directory. Do not edit this script; just configure Cisco Unified CME to load the appropriate script.

Procedures for Installation Technicians

This feature is implemented using a Tcl script and audio prompt files that enable the installation technician to assign an extension number to a new Cisco Unified CME phone by performing the following procedure The system administrator provides the installation technician with all of the information required to perform this procedure.

Step 1 Plug in a specified number of new phones.

Step 2 Wait for the phones to be assigned temporary, random extension numbers.

Step 3 Dial a specified number to access the extension assigner application.

Step 4 Enter a specified password.

Step 5 Enter a tag that identifies an extension number and enables the installation technician to perform one of the following tasks:

Assign a new extension number to a phone.

Unassign the current extension number.

Reassign an extension number.

Files Included in this Release

The app-cme-ea-2.0.0.0.tar or later archive file provided for the extension assigner feature includes a readme file, a Tcl script, and several audio prompt files. If you want to replace the audio files with files that use a language other than English, do not change the name of the files. The Tcl script is written to use only the following list of the filenames:

app-cme-ea-2.0.0.0.tcl (script)

en_cme_tag_assign_phone.au (audio file)

en_cme_tag_assigned_to_phone.au (audio file)

en_cme_tag_assigned_to_phone_idle.au (audio file)

en_cme_tag_assigned_to_phone_inuse.au (audio file)

en_cme_tag_assigned_to_phone_unreg.au (audio file)

en_cme_tag_available.au (audio file)

en_cme_tag_extension.au (audio file)

en_cme_tag_invalid.au (audio file)

en_cme_tag_unassign_phone.au (audio file)

en_cme_tag_action_cancelled.au (audio file)

en_cme_tag_assign_failed.au (audio file)

en_cme_tag_assign_success.au (audio file)

en_cme_tag_contact_admin.au (audio file)

en_cme_tag_disconnect.au (audio file)

en_cme_tag_ephone_tagid.au (audio file)

en_cme_tag_invalid_password.au (audio file)

en_cme_tag_invalidoption.au (audio file)

en_cme_tag_noentry.au (audio file)

en_cme_tag_password.au (audio file)

en_cme_tag_unassign_failed.au (audio file)

en_cme_tag_unassign_success.au (audio file)

en_eight.au (audio file)

en_five.au (audio file)

en_four.au (audio file)

en_nine.au (audio file)

en_one.au (audio file)

en_seven.au (audio file)

en_six.au (audio file)

en_three.au (audio file)

en_two.au (audio file)

en_zero.au (audio file)

readme.txt

Extension Assigner Synchronization

Extension Assigner Synchronization enables the secondary backup router to automatically receive any changes made by Extension Assigner to ephone mac-addresses in the primary router. The synchronization is performed using the Cisco Unified CME XML interface. The Cisco Unified CME XML client encapsulates the configuration changes into an ISexecCLI request and sends it to the secondary backup router using HTTP. The server on the secondary backup side processes the incoming XML request and calls the Cisco IOS CLI parser to perform the updates.

Uncompresses the files in the archive file and copies them to a location that is accessible by the Cisco Unified CME router.

source-url—URL of the source of the extension assigner TAR file. Valid URLs can refer to TFTP or HTTP servers or to flash memory.

location—URL of the destination of the extension assigner TAR file, including its Tcl script and audio files. Valid URLs can refer to TFTP or HTTP servers or to flash memory.

Configuring the Tcl Script

To configure and load the Tcl script for the extension assigner feature and create the password that installation technicians enter to access the extension assigner application, perform the following steps.

Defines the category of audio files that are used for dynamic prompts by an IVR application.

For Extension Assigner, language must be English.

number—Category group of the audio files (from 0 to 4). For example, audio files representing the days and months can be category 1, audio files representing units of currency can be category 2, and audio files representing units of time—seconds, minutes, and hours—can be category 3. Range is from 0 to 4; 0 means all categories.

Step 7

paramspace english language en

Router(config-app-param)# paramspace english language en

Defines the language of audio files that are used for dynamic prompts by an IVR application.

For the Extension Assigner, language must be English and prefix is en.

Disables voice activity detection (VAD) for the calls using a particular dial peer.

Required fro Extension Assigner.

Step 10

end

Router(config-dial-peer)# end

Returns to privileged EXEC mode.

Configuring Provision-Tags for the Extension Assigner Feature

To modify Extension Assigner to use provision-tags, perform the following steps. By default, the extension assigner is enabled and uses ephone tags.

SUMMARY STEPS

1. enable

2. configure terminal

3. telephony-service

4. extension-assigner tag-type {ephone-tag | provision-tag}

5. end

DETAILED STEPS

Command or Action

Purpose

Step 1

enable

Router> enable

Enables privileged EXEC mode.

Enter your password if prompted.

Step 2

configure terminal

Router# configure terminal

Enters global configuration mode.

Step 3

telephony-service

Router(config)# telephony-service

Enters telephony-service configuration mode.

Step 4

extension-assigner tag-type { ephone-tag | provision-tag }

Router(config-telephony)# extension-assigner tag-type provision-tag

Specifies tag type to use to identify extension numbers for Extension Assigner.

ephone-tag —Specifies that extension assigner use the ephone tag to identify the extension number that is assigned to a phone. The installation technician enters this number to assign an extension number to a phone.

provision-tag —Specifies that extension assigner use the provision-tag to identify the extension number that is assigned to a phone. The installation technician enters this number to assign an extension number to a phone.

Step 5

end

Router(config-telephony)# end

Returns to privileged EXEC mode.

Configuring Temporary Extension Numbers for Phones That Use Extension Assigner

To create ephone-dsn to use as a temporary extension numbers for phones to which an extension number will be assigned by Extension Assigner, perform the following steps for each temporary number to be created.

Tip The readme file that is included with the script contains some sample entries for this procedure that you can edit to fit your needs.

Note To change an ephone-dn from dual-line to single-line mode or the reverse, first delete the ephone-dn and then recreate it.

Step 4

number number [ secondary number] [ no-reg [ both | primary ]]

Router(config-ephone-dn)# number 20

Configures a valid extension number for this ephone-dn instance.

Step 5

name name

Router(config-ephone-dn)# name hardware

(Optional) Associates a name with this ephone-dn instance. This name is used for caller-ID displays and in the local directory listings.

Must follow the name order that is specified with the directory command.

Step 6

end

Router(config-ephone-dn)# end

Returns to privileged EXEC mode.

Configuring Ephones with Temporary MAC Addresses

To create an ephone configuration with temporary a MAC address for a Cisco Unified CME phone to which you want the installation technician to assign extension numbers, perform the following steps for each phone.

Prerequisites

The max-ephone command must be configured for a value equal to at least one greater than the number of phones to which you want to assign extension numbers to allow the autoregister feature to automatically create at least one ephone for your temporary extension numbers.

Note You are permitted to set the max-ephone value higher than the number of users supported by your Cisco Unified CME licenses for the purpose of enrolling licensed phones using Extension Assigner.

Restrictions

Max-ephone setting determines how many phones you can plug in at one time. For example, if your max-ephone setting is ten more than the number of phones to which you want to assign extension numbers, the you can plug in ten phones at a time. If you plug in eleven phones, one phone will not register or get a temporary extension number until you assign an extension to one of the first ten phones and reset the eleventh phone.

We recommend that you configure your router to save your configuration every 30 minutes.

occurrence-name—Specifies the name of the occurrence. Length of occurrence-name is from 1 to 31 characters. If the occurrence-name is new, an occurrence structure is created. If the occurrence-name is not new, the existing occurrence is edited.

user—(Optional) Used to identify a particular user.

username—Name of user.

in—Identifies that the occurrence is to run after a specified time interval. The timer starts when the occurrence is configured.

numdays:—(Optional) Number of days. If used, add a colon after the number.

numhours:—(Optional) Number of hours. If used, add a colon after the number.

nummin:—(Optional) Number of minutes.

oneshot—Identifies that the occurrence is to run only one time. After the occurrence has run, the configuration is removed.

recurring—Identifies that the occurrence is to run on a recurring basis.

Step 7

policy-list list-name

Router(config-kron-occurrence)# policy-list save-config

Specifies a Command Scheduler policy list.

Step 8

end

Router(config-kron-occurrence)# end

Returns to privileged EXEC mode.

Provide the Installation Technician with the Required Information

Before the installation technician can assign extension numbers to the new phones, you must provide the following information:

How many phones the installation technician can plug in at one time. This is determined by the number of temporary MAC addresses that you configured.

Which extension number to dial to access the extension assigner application.

Whether the number is dialed automatically when a phone goes off hook.

Assigning Extension Numbers Onsite by Using Extension Assigner

Assigning New Extension Numbers

Initially, when you install a phone, it is assigned a temporary, random extension number. To access Extension Assigner and assign the appropriate extension number to this phone, perform the following steps.

Unassigning an Extension Number

After the new extension number is assigned, you may find that you assigned the wrong number or that your original dial plan has changed. To unassign the wrong number so that it can be used by another phone, perform the following steps.

Configuration Examples for Extension Assigner

Extension Assigner: Example

This exampleshows a router configuration with the following characteristics:

The extension that the installation technician dials to access the extension assigner application is 0999.

The password that the installation technician enters to access the extension assigner application is 1234.

The auto assign command is configured to assign extensions 0001 to 0005.

The installation technician can use extension assigner to assign extension numbers 6001 to 6005.

The extension assigner uses the provision-tag to identify which ephone configuration and extension numbers to assign to the phone.

The auto-reg-ephone command is shown but required, since it is enabled by default.

The kron command is used to automatically save the router configuration.

The max-ephone and max-dn settings of 51 are high enough to allow the installation technician to assign extensions to 50 phones, plugging them in one at a time. If the installation technician is assigning extensions to 40 phones, 11 can be plugged in one at a time. The exceptionis if you use Cisco VG224 Analog Voice Gateways. Extension assigner creates 24 ephones for each Cisco VG224 Analog Voice Gateway, one for each port.

Router# show running-config

version 12.4

no service password-encryption

!

hostname Test-Router

!

boot-start-marker

boot system flash:c2800nm-ipvoice-mz.2006-05-31.GOPED_DEV

boot-end-marker

!

enable password ww

!

no aaa new-model

!

resource policy

!

ip cef

no ip dhcp use vrf connected

!

ip dhcp pool pool21

network 172.21.0.0 255.255.0.0

default-router 172.21.200.200

option 150 ip 172.30.1.60

!

no ip domain lookup

!

application

service EA flash:ea/app-cme-ea-2.0.0.0.tcl

paramspace english index 0

paramspace english language en

param ea-password 1234

paramspace english location flash:ea/

paramspace english prefix en

!

interface GigabitEthernet0/0

no ip address

duplex auto

speed 100

no keepalive

!

interface GigabitEthernet0/0.21

encapsulation dot1Q 21

ip address 172.21.200.200 255.255.0.0

ip http server

!

control-plane

!

dial-peer voice 999 voip

service EA out-bound

destination-pattern 0999

session target ipv4:172.21.200.200

dtmf-relay h245-alphanumeric

codec g711ulaw

no vad

!

telephony-service

extension-assigner tag-type provision-tag

max-ephones 51

max-dn 51

ip source-address 172.21.200.200 port 2000

auto-reg-ephone

auto assign 101 to 105

system message Test-CME

create cnf-files version-stamp 7960 Jun 14 2006 05:37:34

!

ephone-dn 1 dual-line

number 6001

!

ephone-dn 2 dual-line

number 6002

!

ephone-dn 3 dual-line

number 6003

!

ephone-dn 4 dual-line

number 6004

!

ephone-dn 5 dual-line

number 6005

!

ephone-dn 101

number 0101

label Temp-Line-not assigned yet

!

ephone-dn 102

number 0102

label Temp-Line-not assigned yet

!

ephone-dn 103

number 0103

label Temp-Line-not assigned yet

!

ephone-dn 104

number 0104

label Temp-Line-not assigned yet

!

ephone-dn 105

number 0105

label Temp-Line-not assigned yet

!

ephone 1

provision-tag 101

mac-address 02EA.EAEA.0001

button 1:1

!

ephone 2

provision-tag 102

mac-address 02EA.EAEA.0002

button 1:2

!

ephone 3

provision-tag 103

mac-address 02EA.EAEA.0003

button 1:3

!

ephone 4

provision-tag 104

mac-address 02EA.EAEA.0004

button 1:4

!

ephone 5

provision-tag 105

mac-address 02EA.EAEA.0005

button 1:5

!

kron occurrence backup in 30 recurring

policy-list writeconfig

!

kron policy-list writeconfig

cli write

!

line con 0

line aux 0

line vty 0 4

logging synchronous

!

no scheduler max-task-time

scheduler allocate 20000 1000

!

end

Extension Assigner Synchronization: Example

Primary Router: Example

The extension assigner is authorized to send configuration change information from the primary router to the secondary backup router.

telephony-service

standby username user555 password purplehat

Secondary Backup Router: Example

System components are enabled and the XML interface is readied to receive configuration change information.

ip http server

ixi transport http

no shutdown

ixi application cme

no shutdown

telephony-service

xml user user555 password purplehat 15

Additional References

The following sections provide references related to extension assigner.

Technical Assistance

Description

Link

The Cisco Support website provides extensive online resources, including documentation and tools for troubleshooting and resolving technical issues with Cisco products and technologies.

To receive security and technical information about your products, you can subscribe to various services, such as the Product Alert Tool (accessed from Field Notices), the Cisco Technical Services Newsletter, and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) Feeds.

Access to most tools on the Cisco Support website requires a Cisco.com user ID and password.

Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support and software image support. Cisco Feature Navigator enables you to determine which Cisco IOS software images support a specific software release, feature set, or platform. To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to http://www.cisco.com/go/cfn. An account on Cisco.com is not required.

NoteTable 8-1 lists the Cisco Unified CME version that introduced support for a given feature. Unless noted otherwise, subsequent versions of Cisco Unified CME software also support that feature.

Table 8-1 Feature Information for Extension Assigner

Feature Name

Cisco Unified CME Version

Feature Information

Extension Assigner Synchronization

4.2(1)

Enables the secondary backup router to automatically receive any changes made to ephone mac-addresess in the primary router.